The season was over for the Vista Murrieta football team, but in his mind, coach Coley Candaele was still playing the final game. Repeatedly.

âIâm up to 16 ways we could have won the game,â he said, âand we were 0 for 16.â

And so, in the wake of the 30-28 loss to Corona Centennial in the Inland Division championship, Candaele was spending this Monday afternoon in conversation at a Starbucks near the Vista Murrieta campus instead of getting ready for a regional playoff game.

Given the ability of his team â" that meant a 13-1 season played in the national spotlight could only be viewed as a qualified success.

âMaking a CIF final is, I think, a good season,â he said. âFalling short of that would have been a not-so-good season. So getting there makes it a good season. Winning it makes it a great season.â

The national attention â" which saw the team ranked No.8 in the USA Today Super 25 prior to the Inland final â" didnât have a huge impact, but Candaele believes it was a positive.

âIf anything, it raised our expectations,â he said. ââ¦ Our kids were really resilient, and I think having that expectation on them made them resilient through the course of the year, even when they got pressed really hard against Centennial.â

Still, Candaele has misgivings about that kind of attention, which he called âprobably not deservedâ at the start of the season.

âItâs basically because of our success last year, and Suâa (Cravens),â he said. âI get those things. â¦ I think itâs probably better to earn your recognition, kids having to fight and scratch and claw to get their recognition, to establish themselves as a national or a state power.

âSo I think the recognition was helpful, but not necessarily earned until the end. Thatâs not how the system works. I get that.â

What was he happiest about this season? It was a question he considered for a long time.

âIâm happy about making it back (to the Inland final) for a fourth consecutive year, happy for our seniors to be there three years in a row, having that experience. For our kids feeling like they can play against the best teams, and wanting to play against the best teams in CIF, and wanting to play against the best teams in state. â¦

âI think those are the things you get out of the season â" and, I think, the development of a tradition. Weâre 10 years old (as a school), but half of those years are truly developmental, of trying to get out of the cellar. And once youâre out of the cellar, you know, keep on progressing to whatever level you want to get to.â

The level the Broncos has reached is one that makes scheduling a challenge, although Candaele says itâs been that way for a while. As of now, the team has openings for its first two games in 2013, and the future of one other game is undecided.

âOne nice thing is that our kids want to be challenged more,â he said. ââ¦ We have Redlands East Valley and (San Diego) Cathedral Catholic back, which should be good football games. Weâre looking for one, maybe Game2, that would be above our head.â

That challenge will be met by a team that will have a significant number of returning players, though there clearly will be some major losses from this yearâs team.

âWe donât know quite what we have,â Candaele said. âWe know what we have coming back, but we lose our quarterback, and it will be interesting to see what we do with that position.â

Rest assured Candaele is already thinking about that and other questions for 2013.

If nothing else, it helps get his mind off the way the 2012 season ended.

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